Directors of the Decade

Slant Magazine's best of the decade feature - and with it my ranking of the top 100 films of the last ten years - is still a couple of weeks away (in the meantime check out the site's great new look), but I wanted here to offer my list of the period's most significant filmmakers. Below are my top ten directors of the decade, the decade being defined per the common (if, incorrect) usage as 2000-2009. Jia Zhang-ke should be understood as my top choice - the rest are in alphabetical order. List of principal works include only those that I have seen.


Jia Zhang-ke

Principal works:

Platform (2000)
Unknown Pleasures (2002)
The World (2004)
Still Life (2006)
Dong (short) (2006)
24 City (2008)
Cry Me a River (short) (2008)


Olivier Assayas

Principal works:

Les Destinées Sentimentales (2000)
Demonlover (2002)
Clean (2004)
Boarding Gate (2007)
Summer Hours (2008)


Claire Denis

Principal works:

Beau Travail (1999 - released 2000)
Trouble Every Day (2001)
Friday Night (2002)
L'Intrus (2004)
35 Shots of Rum (2008)
White Material (2009)


Hou Hsiao-Hsien

Principal works:

Millennium Mambo (2001)
Café Lumière (2003)
Three Times (2005)
Flight of the Red Balloon (2007)


David Lynch

Principal works:

Mulholland Drive (2001)
Inland Empire (2006)


Lucrecia Martel

Principal works:

La Ciénaga (2001)
The Holy Girl (2004)
The Headless Woman (2008)


Jafar Panahi

Principal works:

The Circle (2000)
Crimson Gold (2003)
Offside (2006)


Jacques Rivette

Principal works:

Va Savoir (2001)
The Story of Marie and Julien (2003)
Don't Touch the Axe (2007)
36 Vues du Pic Saint Loup (2009)


Béla Tarr

Principal works:

Werckmeister Harmonies (2000)
The Man from London (2007)


Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Principal works:

Mysterious Object at Noon (2000)
Blissfully Yours (2002)
Tropical Malady (2004)
Syndromes and a Century (2006)
Phantoms of Nabua (short) (2009)
A Letter to Uncle Boonmee (short) (2009)